No breakdowns detected in Proton rocket guidance system — commission

May 20, 2014, 9:21 UTC+3MOSCOWEarly reports said the engine malfunctioned, presumably because of a faulty guidance system, in the 545th second of the flight when Proton was at a height of 161 kilometers

MOSCOW, May 20. /ITAR-TASS/. A commission investigating the failed launch of the Proton-M booster rocket on May 16 said it has not detected any failures of its guidance system.

"According to emergency analysis of telemetry returns, the guidance system has operated fault-free, strictly in line with the flight program, chairman of the inter-departmental commission analyzing the failed launch, First Deputy Director General of the Tsniimash Central Research Institute of Machine Building Alexander Danilyuk told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

"Specialists from the commissions have not voiced such versions either," Danilyuk said.

The guidance system was developed and produced at the Pilyugin Scientific-Production Center of Automatics and Instrument-Making.

No miscalculation found

The commission investigating the failed launch of the Proton-M booster rocket on May 16 has also ruled out miscalculation as the cause.

"A miscalculation could not have caused the accident. Prior to the launch, a simulation of the rocket flight was carried out using the flight programme parameters," chairman of the Commission, First Deputy Director General of the Tsniimash Central Research Institute of Machine Building Alexander Danilyuk told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

Under the main preliminary version, a faulty 3rd stage control engine was the main cause of the failed launch.

The rocket intended to take a communications satellite into orbit, began its flight from Baikonur at 01:42 Moscow time on Friday (21:42 GMT Thursday), burning up in dense layers of the atmosphere above the Pacific.

Early reports said the engine malfunctioned, presumably because of a faulty guidance system, in the 545th second of the flight when Proton was at a height of 161 kilometers.